Summer
Year Round
Recipes
Meat
Salads and Vegetables
Lamb kefte with herb salad and spicy yoghurt
Stallholders at the local market make these skewers and cook them over charcoal braziers. They are then sold rolled in flatbreads with handfuls of herbs and chopped onion stuffed inside. These are an interpretation of the wonderful street food snacks.
You will need 6-12 metal skewers, or you can use wooden ones, but make sure they are soaked for at least 15 minutes in water beforehand to stop them singeing.
These recipes originally appeared in House & Garden magazine, photos courtesy of Oivind Haug.
Ingredients
- For the kefte:
- 1 ½ kg minced fatty lamb
- 1 medium white onion, grated
- 3tbsp ground cumin
- 2tbsp ground turmeric
- 1tsp smoked paprika
- ½ tsp chilli powder
- 1½ tsp fine sea salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 10g mint leaves, finely chopped
- 10g parsley, finely chopped
- 2 eggs
- For the herb salad:
- Coriander, parsley, mint, about 40g of each, leaves picked from the stalk
- 1 medium red onion, finely chopped and mixed with 2tbsp finely chopped parsley
- 1tbsp lemon juice
- 3tbsp Extra virgin olive oil
- Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
- Cumin harissa yoghurt
- 600g thick Greek-style yoghurt
- 1 clove garlic, crushed
- 2tsp ground cumin
- 1tbsp harissa paste
- Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Put the minced lamb into a large bowl with all the other kefte ingredients and mix well: this is best done with your hands so you can really get all the spices and flavours incorporated into the meat.
- Take a small handful of mince in the palm of your hand and shape it into a long sausage shape around the skewer. Press it quite firmly to make it adhere to the skewer. You could make either one large skewer, or two thinner skewers per person. Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
- For the herb salad: put the herb leaves and onion into a bowl. Mix up the other ingredients to make a dressing and just before serving, dress the leaves and toss well.
- For the cumin harissa yoghurt:
Mix all the ingredients together and refrigerate until needed.
- Cook the skewers under a medium grill (or on a griddle pan or barbeque) for 2-4 minutes on each side (depending on their thickness, try not to overcook them or they will dry out). Serve while still hot with the herb salad, cumin harissa yoghurt and warmed flatbread.
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